Cool guys don't look at explosions [Open]

[zouichi]

Zouichi had been pleased to find a place like this in the City, but he'd barely gotten a chance to move a few of his things out of Crew Quarters before the notification about Starfighter Command's mission had arrived and he'd been forced to clear out. But now, things seemed to be settling down slightly. It looked like he'd be able to put his

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[nobel_berserker]

Allenby had a habit of running whenever she needed to clear her head, and the City gave her plenty of room to do it in. Today she'd gone off in a random direction, enjoying the unfamiliar sights as her feet pounded away her worries.

When she slowed to a halt, it looked like she'd run across something odder than usual. Allenby came on the inn from the side, but she didn't bother looking for the gate. She just hopped up onto the wall around the courtyard. Something about the architecture looked kinda familiar, but not quite...

She grinned when she saw a familiar figure on the ground. "Well hey there!" She sat herself down on the wall, giving him a big wave.

[zouichi]

Zouichi blinked, surprised to see a familiar face simply pop into view. "Allenby? I didn't expect to see you here. Are you looking for someone?"

[nobel_berserker]

"Nah, just explorin'." Allenby jumped down from the wall and landed lightly, looking around at the courtyard. "I never saw this place before, though! Sure looks pretty fancy."

[zouichi]

"Aha. Well, I found this place shortly before the mission with Starfighter Command. As much as I enjoy living in Crew Quarters, I thought it might be a little more pleasant to stay out in the City. Less... organic."

He motioned toward the building. "It's an inn. I'm sure it needs some cleaning, since no one's been living here, but it should do pretty nicely."

It was also not made out of Stacy-skin, which was nice. "So, do you explore around here often?"

[nobel_berserker]

"Less like sleepin' up someone's nose, ya mean," Allenby said with a chuckle. She was too used to military accommodations to really be put off by the quarters, but that little element to them had taken a while to get used to.

She started walking around, reaching up to pull down one of the treebranches a little. "An inn, huh? I've never seen one like this, really... I guess it does look pretty nice, doesn't it?" She let the branch go and watched it spring back into place. "And yeah, I do a lotta runnin' around. I like to look for places I ain't seen before."

[zouichi]

Zouichi couldn't help smiling at that. "Well, I was trying to be polite."

He blinked. "A lot of running arou-- oh. Training. Of course. So you've probably seen more of the City than I have, then. Have you found anywhere you might be interested in moving into? Or are you planning to stay in Quarters?"

[nobel_berserker]

"Stacy isn't polite to us. I don't see why we oughta be polite about her," Allenby said with a careless shrug.

"I'm okay with living in the regular quarters--I'm used to that kinda housing." She looked around at the courtyard again. "But if this place gets plumbin' and everything, it sounds like it'd be kinda nice."

[zouichi]

"Well, that's... true." Actually, Zouichi was surprised how often he seemed to be agreeing with Allenby. "But it wasn't really the ship I was trying to be polite to. We've only met a few times, so I thought I'd try to be a little more tactful about my complaining."

Zouichi shrugged. "To be honest, I'm not used to having any one place to live at all. But I do believe this place comes with plumbing. I'll have to see how things turn out. The garden is very nice, though."

[nobel_berserker]

"Hey, don't ever worry about being tactful around me. I'm no good at that stuff at all," Allenby said with a wave of her hand. As some other members of the crew (and a few government officials on Earth) had already realized.

Well, the inn did sound pretty nice, when Zouichi outlined it like that. Especially when he mentioned not having moved around a lot... Allenby had only done a lot of traveling during the year of the Gundam Fight, but the houseboat in Neo Hong Kong had seemed miles better than her military quarters. "It looks like someplace you look forward to coming at the end of the day, don't it?" she said with a small smile. "If you want, I could give you a hand getting it all cleaned up."

[zouichi]

He smiled. "I'll try to keep that in mind." 'Try' being the operative word, since Allenby doesn't seem quite as cynical as some of his other acquaintances. You can only take so much politeness out of a Synthetic Human.

Zouichi had spent most of his waking life on his bike, traveling between mission locations -- so no houseboats for him, alas. "Well, if you'd like, I wouldn't mind a hand sweeping up some of these leaves." He looked back at the inn. "Anyway, who knows? Maybe by the time I'm done, someone else will want to move in, too."

That'd be interesting.

[nobel_berserker]

"You got it!" Allenby clenched a fist in midair. She'd probably go at sweeping leaves with the same kind of burning spirit as she did training, and ran inside to look for a broom. That led to her having to poke around in more than one room, and well, they did all look pretty nifty.

She wouldn't have had the thought if Zouichi hadn't mentioned it, but now that he had--well, this inn did seem like a pretty good place to live in. 'Course, it was kind of awkward to just ask someone if you could live with them, but they'd fought together--in sparring and out in battle. So it'd be fine, right?

She poked her head out the front door. "Hey, Zouichi--would ya mind if I lived here too? I think I like this place."

[zouichi]

Zouichi watched Allenby run inside, bemused. Well, he was going to offer her his broom, since he knew where the others were, but... well, Allenby seemed to put her all into everything she did, anyway.

He did spend a second or two blinking at her in surprise when she came back with that question, though. "Actually, no, I wouldn't mind at all -- I just didn't think anyone would be interested so soon. You're not allergic to birds, are you?"

[nobel_berserker]

"Nope! Not allergic to anything." Allenby beamed. Ah-hah, a broom! Grabbing it, she hopped back out into the courtyard and began to sweep busily. "I'm pretty used to havin' quarters like that, but the one time I did get to be in a real house, it was pretty nice. I just didn't think there was anything quite like this in the City."

[zouichi]

He smiled, starting his way at one end of the yard to brush at a pile of leaves that had wedged themselves in a corner. "There are an awful lot of buildings around here -- who knows what someone could find tomorrow? But I'll have to agree that this place is a little different. So, what was this house of yours like? Did you live there alone?"

[nobel_berserker]

"Oh, it wasn't my house--it was actually a houseboat in a place called Neo Hong Kong. A friend of mine was stayin' there and I ended up visiting them a lot."

Allenby's smile softened as she swept. "There was this old guy living there with his two grandkids. And it was nice, y'know? Just the three of them as a family. I liked bein' around them."

[zouichi]

He raised an eyebrow. "A... houseboat? They still have those where you come from?" Zouichi had a vague idea of what a houseboat was, but he'd never actually seen one.

"Sounds like you've got a lot of friends. What about your family, though? Or did you not get to visit them very often, with the Gundam Fight?"